Plaster Ornaments

First we had a slow afternoon where the children were bored. Then we had these ornaments that had been sitting on the kitchen bench since we made them. Combine the two and we have a busy house with the children painting the ornaments and when they ran out of ornaments we had a big pile of paper they could use.

Here we have my 2 year old painting a little heart. She does quite well with one colour at a time

And here we have the finished collection. The ones with ribbons have been put on cupboard handles in the kitchen to liven up the whiteness of it all. The ones without ribbons have had magnets glued to the back and are on the magnet board in the bedroom.

Using up the paint to make an abstract card :-)

The Toy Collection Agency

I have been getting very frustrated with my kids when it comes time to tidy up and leave the house. I like to tidy the house before I go out so that if I am tired when we come back there is nothing I need to do. My  children love pulling all their toys out and playing with them. They are even reasonably happy to pack up in a desultory way. The thing that really bothers me is how they pack up. There will always be one or two things that are left behind - trains left out of the train box, cars left lying in the middle of the floor, pencils that have rolled under the table and have been left behind. I end up spending my day putting away all the odd toys that have been forgotten

I had a talk to the boys about why this was happening and what we can do to make mornings easier for us all. Kit thought that we should have an op-shop bag that all the toys left out are put in. James thought that he should be able to get the toys back after a few days.

So we have instituted the Toy Collection Agency to combine both ideas. Once the boys have tidied their room and invite me in to check, I will put anything that has been left out in a tub in the laundry. They have a week to do extra jobs so they can earn their toys back. 1 job = 1 toy. If they don't want to earn the toys back then we should give them to the op shop.

To make this easy, we painted a small box gold and placed a magnet on the back.

Then we printed out a list of jobs for the children to do. The criteria for the jobs is that they must be jobs that I wouldn't ordinarily ask them to do.  My boys had a lovely time coming up with jobs they think would be a help to me (and a few of them are jobs they really want to try).

Finally we wrote a reminder on the box for the children so that they remember what it is they need to do to earn their toys back. Now it lives on the fridge where it is easily accessible.

So far we haven't had any toys left out :-)

Finger Print Blossom Tree

This is a print out of a tree that was coloured in and decorated. Once all the colouring in was done, we used our fingers to dot white and pink flowers all over the branches ...and let ourselves get carried away by dotting flowers right down the trunk of the tree too. It is a unique tree that probably only exists in our imaginations. Once the paint was dry, the boys made a lot of little cuts in a strip of green paper and glued it on to look like grass.

Cotton Ball Sheep

My daughter loves to use glue, so I sat her down to happily stick the cotton balls all over this sheep shape I had sitting in my useful box. It kept her entertained for a good half hour while I was hanging the clothes on the line. 

Paper Plate Macaw

This Macaw was painted in parts and then assembled. 

Handprint Hedgehog

My son has been learning all about animals from around the world for the last 12 weeks at school. One of his homework activities is to teach his family something he had been doing at school. Today he decided to teach us how to make simple hedgehogs (and Macaws)

 First we took a small hand and traced around it - notice the little hands helping to trace the even smaller hands :-) Then we cut out the hand print in different coloured cardboard (paper is easier, but since we have heaps of old folder dividers in the cupboard we used those instead)

Then we take a paper plate. I finally managed to find paper plates at the Reject Shop just in time for this craft otherwise you would be seeing my attempt to cut out a circle. I assure you that that is not a pretty sight! 

Then we arranged the hand prints in rows along the plate. We cut out two eyes and coloured in the middle, and a rain drop shape for the nose. Here we have our hedgehog all ready to hang up.

And here we have the example that our 'teacher' made for us to work from.

3...2...1...Blast Off! The Adventures of the Cardboard Rocket

Today we are having a day exploring outer space. James wants to pretend he is an astronaut exploring new planets, finding aliens and collecting samples (this means lots of sand and rocks in his pockets as astronauts don't carry bags!). We have covered the couches with blankets to pretend they are planets. There is a big cushion on the floor as a moon. We have conscripted the soft toys to play the part of aliens. The only thing missing is a rocket to travel between these interesting places.

A quick rummage through the craft cupboard unearthed these boxes, a few pieces of cardboard and some wool. I am sure this will make an adequate rocket.

Since rockets have a pointy tip and wings, we started with cutting out two large triangles and one small one. We used masking tape to attach the smaller shoe box to the long box. Then we attached the wings and nose to the rocket. The small shoe box is perfect for the cabin of the rocket since the plastic lid opens easily. This means the astronauts can get out of the rocket to explore each planet.

James found some material and ribbon scraps to make the flames coming out of the engines.

Our two little men are made from a cardboard tube cut in half. The orange hair is a small ball of wool pushed inside the tube. The brown hair is a small pompom pushed inside the second tube. It turns out that the brown haired tubeman is afraid of heights and we drew his eyes open. Poor man. At least rockets are fast and he won't be in the air for long!